ODB 2012 Recruit Impact Rankings: 13-16

We're back for the third installment in the epic series counting down my personal rankings of Baylor's 2012 Football Recruiting Class! The responses I've gotten to the first two sets has been fairly positive, so I'm going to keep charging on down to #1: my favorite recruit in this class and the one I think I will have the most impact in his time at Baylor University. This list is in no way intended to slight our recruits; they are all Baylor Bears now and I know our coaches are extremely happy to have them.

Here is who we have so far from sets 1 and 2:

24. Orion Stewart -- S -- Midway, HS (Waco, TX)
23. Terrance Singleton - ATH - Memorial HS (Port Arthur, TX)
22. Kaleb Moore - WR - Cypress Fair HS (Cypress, TX)
21. Lynx Hawthorne - WR - Refugio HS (Refugio, TX)
20. Devin Chafin - RB - Burkburnett HS (Burkburnett, TX)
19. Patrick Levels - CB - Roosevelt HS (Dallas, TX)
18. Terrell Burt - CB - Wylie HS (Wylie, TX)
17. Kyle Fuller - OL - Wylie HS (Wylie, TX)

To quote myself once again:

This is purely my own opinion of how things will shake out from Baylor's 2012 class; you are all free to disagree. I actually encourage it. This is supposed to be something fun, not negative, and by ranking one player beneath or above another, I'm not trying to make value judgments of those players or their skills. I can and will be wrong. I'm not hating.

Let's get right to it with numbers 13-16. Tonight's group contains two players from the defensive front seven, our second offensive tackle, and an athlete slotted for now at IR. Find out their names below the jump.

16. Shamycheal Chatman – LB – Sealy HS (Sealy, TX) – Through this entire list, Chatman was one of the guys I wanted to write about the most. If this was purely a "MCM gushes about his favorite recruits" list, Chatman would probably be third or fourth on the list. Part of the reason is the story of his recruitment; for about three weeks, rumors swirled on Baylor boards about a commit being kept under wraps that was an absolute physical specimen. It wasn’t someone immediately recognizable by name, but our coaching staff was extremely excited. All of us in the dark tried as best we could to sleuth out the name to no avail. Well that guy turned out to be the 6-3, 238 lb. Shamycheal, who goes by Myke. A TE, DE, MLB, and long-snapper for his HS team, Chatman was/is a late qualifier (a recruit that schools didn’t think would get his grades high enough to be eligible) that reports late interest from both TCU and Texas A&M. From his highlight video, it’s not hard to see why. When I asked him on Twitter, Chatman told me that he’s bringing his speed (4.60 in the 40) and intensity to Baylor as a LB, and I am excited to get him on campus. Rumor has it that he might be another greyshirt candidate, which means it could be a while before we see him on the field, but Briles loves his "tremendous upside" and so do I. I think if Myke had gotten his grades in order more quickly, his recruitment would have exploded. Kids with his size and speed don't grow on trees (because they're humans, you see).

15. Zorrell Ezell – DT – Humble HS (Humble, TX) – From what I know of Phil Bennett’s defensive philosophy, if you were to try to create a defensive tackle to his specifications, you’d probably end up with something like Zorrell Ezell, the first player from the defensive line on this list and a member of Baylor’s sizeable 2012 DL class. Zorrell stands 6-0 and weighs somewhere between 265 and 275 pounds. I would expect that once he gets on campus and begins Baylor’s S&C program, he’ll probably top 300. This was a difficult recruit to place on the list because he plays a need position on the DL and has an offer sheet including names like Arkansas, Miami, Kansas State, and ArizonaState. Both of those are big positives to me. The problem I have is that his scouting reports and videos don’t really support the hype (to my eyes). The really intriguing thing is that I’ve read on Baylor boards that Ezell might get early PT. He’s definitely another player to watch. Here is a teensy bit of junior tape on him so you can see what he looks like.

14. Rashodrick Linwood – WR/CB – Linden-Kildare HS (Linden, TX) – When Rashodrick decided to switch his verbal commit to Baylor from TCU in early January, he was a name that close observers of Baylor recruiting already knew from very early on in the summer of 2011. Linwood attended one of Baylor’s summer skills camps (I believe it was one in DFW) and blew our coaches away. There was a lot of buzz about this kid before he committed to TCU and things quieted down for a while. After it became known that he was considering switching, I was excited to hear about him at least in part because it meant taking a recruit TCU wanted. The most-recent scuttlebutt about Linwood says Baylor wants to play him at IR, but I think he might end up on defense. Yes, he’s on the smaller side at 5-10, 185, but that’s what Bennett wants from his corners. Watching him run and seeing his speed (4.5 second 40 on 247Sports) and shiftiness, I think he might actually fit as a Salubi-style RB, too. There’s no reason he couldn’t bulk up a bit if asked, and he actually played RB quite a bit in his junior year judging from a highlight video from 2010. I couldn't find a free video for 2011, but I did find this. Watch it and tell me that's not the greatest self-made video you've ever seen from a recruit. I especially liked the introduction.

13. Tre’von Armstead – OT – Memorial HS (Port Arthur, TX) – If you look at the handy-dandy chart I madesummarizing the rankings received by our recruits, Armstead’s position this high on the list may surprise you. Then you see quotes from Coach Briles where he says that they "feel like [Armstead] is definitely one of the top, if not the top, offensive tackles in the state of Texas" and things make a little more sense. In a class where Baylor only ended up taking 3 offensive linemen total (one of whom is Cameron Bailey) and turning down several quality recruits toward the end of the recruiting period (Simon Goines, for one), Briles and co. identified Armstead as someone they absolutely had to have. It may be circular logic to say that Briles wanting him is evidence enough that he is good since if he wasn’t, Briles wouldn’t want him, but I think it’s true. Add in the fact that Texas attempted to get Armstead to come to campus numerous times and you have a recruit that is probably a little underrated by the recruiting services. As for me, I see a 6’6", 280 lb future OT for Baylor with long arms (so far as I can tell from his videos) and a bit of a mean streak. I don’t see anything not to like; the only reason he isn’t higher on the list is Baylor’s recent success recruiting OL and the fact that with guys like Spencer Drango and Laquan McGowan ahead of him, it may be a while before we see Tre’von on the field.